420: What It’s Like to Build an Educational Technology Company w/ Tom Davidson, EVERFI [Main T4C Episode]

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Tom Davidson is the CEO and co-founder of EVERFI a global educational technology company driving social change through education to address the most challenging issues affecting society ranging from financial wellness to prescription drug safety to workplace conduct to name a few. Founded in 2008, EVERFI is fueled by its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) community engagement platform and has reached more than 30 million learners globally.  Tom and his partners have since taken the company from a startup to a large organization with 550 employees.  They’ve raised over $250 in venture capital from executives from some of the leading tech companies in the world, including Amazon, Google, and Twitter. Tom graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in 1994, where he majored in Government and African-American Studies. Tom ran for a seat in Maine’s House of Representatives, while he was a senior at Bowdoin, and he won in an upset. He served three terms, before opting not to run again in 2000. 

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE:

• What an educational technology company is (5:02)
• What EverFi does (6:05)
• Why EverFi has an unusual business model (12:15)
• Why Tom values coding, data science, and analytics (17:35)
• How to prepare for a career in education technology (18:12)
• How Tom built an education technology company with very little computer experience (21:21)
• Why college is actually the place to start building your professional network (23:53)
• Why communication with your consumers is so important (25:09)
• Why and how Tom ran for public office as a senior in college (26:20)
• How serving in state office prepared Tom to get into educational technology (28:20)
• How entrepreneurs must adjust as their company grows (33:28)
• Why to check out online tech learning platforms like Pluralsight and General Assembly